Walter Zeplien

Oberleutnant zur See (Crew 37b)



No ships sunk or damaged.


Born  17 Sep 1918 Greifswald
Died  30 Sep 2001(83)Graytown, Ohio


Ranks

9 Oct 1937 Offiziersanwärter
28 Jun 1938 Seekadett
1 Apr 1939 Fähnrich zur See
1 Mar 1940 Oberfähnrich zur See
1 May 1940 Leutnant zur See
1 Apr 1942 Oberleutnant zur See

Decorations

U-boat Commands

U-boatFromTo
U-971 1 Apr 1943 24 Jun 1944   1 patrol (17 days) 

Post-war
The Oswego, New York (USA) Palladium newspaper, July-Sept., 1959, interviewed Walter Zeplien, then 40 years old, who was captain of the German freighter Trahsorie of the Poseidon Line, out of Hamburg. According to his he became a merchant marine captain after the war.

Zeplien apparently moved to the U.S. during the 1960s.

Patrol info for Walter Zeplien

 U-boat Departure Arrival  
1. U-971 21 May 1944  Kiel  23 May 1944  Marviken   3 days
2. U-971 8 Jun 1944  Marviken  24 Jun 1944  Sunk  Patrol 1,17 days


About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.

Media links


German U-boat Commanders of World War II

Busch, Rainer and Röll, Hans-Joachim

Listing of all U-boat commanders


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